My April report is coming in a few days late because frankly, I forgot! April was full of all the seasons of the year; at least twice through and not in proper order. I got lost in another rainy, gloomy day as wife, mom, appraiser, cook, chauffer, tutor, and all around super-puncher. I just forgot.
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| Day 1 of Bryce & Bolt |
The kids are working on their summer show calves finally. When we finish getting ready for Denver in January, we focus intently on caring for the cows as they are calving. When we shift gears and start back working on show cattle after our calving is finished, it is always fun to watch these kids and calves learn to trust one another. Being highly motivated by food and scratches, most of them are quickly won over. Let’s be real though, the same can be said for winning over a lot of humans; with food and scratches. J I love these months of all of us working together. We eat a lot of picnic lunches and suppers in the barn, inoculating ourselves eating with unwashed hands, arguing because someone isn’t pulling their weight and sending calves back to the wash rack because there is still soap on their bellies. Aah, good times!
It has been really fun seeing Bryce jump in with more intention now that he is old enough to show in the junior shows this summer. He has always wanted to show a bull. Talked about it for years which is saying a lot considering he is only seven! What can I say, he takes after his mom I guess.
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| John |
When I was a kid, I kind of liked showing the bulls too and little known fact, unless you know me from my childhood, I had a bull that was kinda famous around home. His name was John and he was a gentle giant tipping the scales at over 2,300 lbs.
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| John at Wal-Mart with some random kid riding him. Common occurance. |
Besides John’s responsibilities being a herd bull (that was born and raised on our farm), he was asked to make appearances at all kinds of places; school, beef producer events, lots of local fairs where people would come back year after year and ask, “do you know where they have John the Bull??” One time he even went to the Wal-Mart for an afternoon! We didn’t have a farm dog so I never had that “man’s best friend” experience with something of a reasonable size; mine was with a huge bull that behaved more like a golden retriever. Definitely the first “boy” I ever loved. He lived to be 14 years old which is OLD for a bull. And…I may or may not be ugly crying while I write this. Written words are funny like that. I sat down to write this update not really knowing where it was going to take me. I surely didn’t think it was going to require Kleenex on my part but here I am, blowing my nose. Anyway, I have a soft spot for them and evidently that is hereditary!
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Bolt might just be my Bryce’s John. That calf went from setting back in his halter on a Tuesday to Bryce leading him on Sunday morning. It may not have hurt that the boy is as stubborn as me too because he put on and took off the halter on that calf no less than 87 times during those first 5 days. When I walked in the barn Sunday after church and saw him lead that little Bolt over to be tied up and I nearly cried (again) as I was so proud of the two of them!
Sometimes we need a good reminder of why we spend all the time we do with these calves. The awards and banners are totally cool. I will be the very first person to admit that feeling is super rewarding but as a parent, when you see these sweet little victories in the comfort of your own barn, well, that’s the coolest. I hate to tear into stories from the show barn so early in the year but I guess this serves as the reader’s warning, there will be more of where that came from.
